


When The Stars Go

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Paint The Sky With Stars [18]
Category: Night World - Fandom, Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Witches, Crossover, Fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-04
Updated: 2016-06-04
Packaged: 2018-07-12 04:08:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7085044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Stargate Multiverse, Any, <i>Even the stars sometimes fade to gray / Even the stars hide away.</i>"</p><p>Tag to The Shrine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When The Stars Go

“He’s not all right,” John said.  
  
Keller frowned at him. “What makes you say that? It’s just a cold.”  
  
John had never appreciated how lucky he was, to have another Night Child as a physician before now. “No, it’s not. It’s worse. The stars in his mind - they’re going out. Or fading. Or hiding. Or - or _something_.”  
  
“Stars in his mind…?” Keller looked totally lost.  
  
John cast Ronon a look for help.  
  
Ronon shrugged. “Evan and I can’t see into each other’s minds like that.”  
  
John curled his hands into fists, frustrated. “Rodney and I are soulmates. We can see into each other’s minds, and the way we conceptualize our own minds - every mind is unique. Mine is a sky, because I love flying. Rodney’s is galaxies. Stars upon stars upon stars. And the stars are going out. There’s something very, very wrong with him, and we need to fix it.”  
  
“The scans showed nothing,” Keller insisted.  
  
“The scans are wrong!”  
  
Everyone flinched, and John forced himself to take a couple of deep breaths.  
  
“I’m sorry I yelled,” he said, “but we need to do something for Rodney now.”  
  
Ronon leaned in and actually sniffed Rodney, and then he straightened up, expression grim.  
  
Keller stared at him. “Did you just -?”  
  
“He has Second Childhood,” Ronon said.  
  
Teyla’s expression turned grim as well.  
  
“What’s that?” Keller asked.  
  
Ronon and Teyla explained. It was some kind of horrible dementia native to the Pegasus Galaxy. There was a brief cure, the Shrine of Talus, that allowed a victim one last day of lucidity to say goodbye. But the thought of having to stand by and watch Rodney’s mind - his _mind_ , the most beautiful part of him, his soul - fade out one star at a time was intolerable.  
  
Keller said, “Could you heal him?”  
  
“I - I don’t have that kind of magic,” John said. “I never learned how.” He cursed, not for the first time, his upbringing as a vampire, for never learning the magic he should have learned, the magic that would have mattered. Magic that could have saved Mitch and Dex and Holland instead of -  
  
He shoved the memory aside.  
  
“What about your vampire blood?” Keller asked. “Would that save him?”  
  
John paused. He thought of Cousin James, who’d turned his soulmate because she was dying of cancer. “No. The Change would kill him. He’d never survive. He’s too old.”  
  
“Not a full Change,” Keller said quickly, and she didn’t suppress the horror that crossed her face fast enough. “Just some blood.”  
  
“I don’t know,” John said. “I could try, but if the Change would hurt him, I don’t know what my blood would do to him.” Keller was onto something, though. “But I could at least try.”  
  
“We could reach out to other planets and see if Carson can come back,” Teyla suggested.  
  
John nodded. “Go. Reach out to your allies.”  
  
Teyla hurried from the infirmary.  
  
“Are you going to do it?” Ronon asked. “Give him your blood?”  
  
“I have to try,” John said.  
  
“Can you feed off of a shifter?” Ronon held out his arm.  
  
“Anyone who’s not a vampire.”  
  
Keller swallowed hard. “What do you need me to do?”  
  
“Stay out of our way,” John said. He sucked in a breath, reached out with his dulled senses, listened for Ronon’s heartbeat. And then he stepped forward, lowered his head to Ronon’s wrist, and bit.


End file.
